The nature of the broadcast radio competitive landscape has changed significantly over the past decade. New various electronic devices, such as mp3 players, have provided a greater number of options for music and spoken word consumers to enjoy audio content. Whereas 50 years ago, over the airwaves radio was the primary source of audio entertainment and a “radio” was the only means of listening to radio broadcasts, a multitude of receiver options are presently available to audio listeners. Moreover, CD and MP3 players, as well as the Internet, have given listeners the ability to choose audio content for themselves, leaving broadcast radio working hard to attract and maintain its audience.
In the past, broadcast radio has instituted methods to allow an audience to participate in content selection, including call-lines and listener surveys. These have helped some radio stations develop or maintain listener loyalty and to maintain market share. However, they have always required a “curator,” such as a Disc Jockey or Program Director to adjust the radio station's programming using the information collected from the surveys and “phone call-ins.” More recently, broadcast systems have adopted automation systems, such as “SS32”, “Maestro”, “AudioVault”, “Nexgen”, “WideOrbit”, or “Station Playlist” which play selections by utilizing on-air schedules including music, spoken word, and commercials that have been generated by content scheduling software and subsequently exported by a file system to the automation system. However, these broadcast automation systems have the problem that the playlists cannot be automatically changed to provide for audience participation and require the intervention of a human operator who has to over-ride the automation system in order to make changes in the scheduling or playlist. Thus, it has been a problem that certain broadcast automation systems do not allow for the option of automatically using an external data source, such as an audience participation program, to allow the audience to participate in the choice of broadcast content.
The present invention provides a software system in which the audience's votes and participation can automatically (i.e., without the need for a person to participate) manipulate a radio station's music schedule or spoken word programming schedule by interfacing with the radio station's studio operating system including the automation system and/or programming scheduling software. In particular, this system provides a file, which is generated as a choice of a given number of selections upon which audience members were permitted to vote. A chosen selection is then routed directly by means of a placeholder or surrogate file by the invention into the radio station's playlist (which resides in the radio station's music scheduling software or radio automation system) as the next play. Selection is generally dictated by the audience participation system, which can use a variety of criteria for the selection choice. The selection can be chosen from a number of choices by meeting a criteria, such as the most number of positive votes, the least number of negative votes, or by another defined criteria, such as a geographic or demographic characteristic or even individualized preferences. The audience participation system can include means as part of the voting process to prompt members of the audience to participate in a vote by various means including broadcast alerts, texts, IM or e-mail alerts or other social media.